Man Utd sign Patrick Dorgu: Can ‘glitch in the matrix’ solve Ruben Amorim’s problem?

Dorgu’s story began with local youth football in his home city of Copenhagen, as well as playing with his siblings. One of his brothers is an attacker for Genoa’s under-20 team, while the other is a goalkeeper in Denmark’s lower leagues.

At 12 years old he was scouted by Danish Superliga side Nordsjaelland, a club – owned by the Right To Dream academy in Ghana – renowned for producing promising young talents. Brighton’s Simon Adingra and Brentford duo Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard are among the academy’s alumni.

Nordsjaelland are specialists at developing youngsters, with the best of the best spending a season or two with the first team before moving on.

Yet in 2022, newly promoted Serie A side Lecce paid about €200,000 (£167,000) to sign the then 17-year-old Dorgu before he had made a single senior appearance.

“He’s sort of a glitch in the matrix,” Karsten Krogh, Serie A journalist at Danish podcast Mediano, tells BBC Sport.

“He never really did that well as a youth player in Denmark, he was never a star anywhere. It wasn’t like the other teams in Denmark were lining up to get his signature.”

After helping Lecce win the Italian under-19 title in his first season, the club’s then-first team manager Roberto d’Aversa fast-tracked Dorgu into his squad.

“He’s growing a lot and I see a bright future for him,” D’Aversa said at the time.

“In football there are no ages, there are strong players and less strong ones. He is one of the strong players.”

This season Dorgu has switched between the right wing and left-back in a back four, providing three assists and scoring once while starting all but one of Lecce’s Serie A games.

His performances have convinced United to take action, even if his childhood dream was to play for Chelsea.